Diploma in Advanced International Culinary Arts & Professional Kitchen Management

Specific kitchen skills and techniques are taught for advanced-level students

More than foundations in professional culinary arts, the program also includes studies of specific cuisines, management training, and service styles. Due to the in-depth nature of this program, graduates have gained the solid foundation and may have better opportunities to progress faster in their careers and gain the skills that make them eligible for more advanced placement in the professional kitchen, such as sous chef or even head chef.

This is a typical day in the program

A typical day in the program may be start in the library area, kitchen, or even outside of school. AICA’s experience and knowledgeable faculty members take their students around the school’s facilities and beyond it, to market areas, special stores, and the like. While students are also taught the necessary foundations to make their dishes, a typical classroom lecture goes beyond simply telling them how to do it, but why it’s done. As they progress in the program to focused study on particular cuisines, students have to do more than make a dish according to their region – they have to know and show their understanding of the history and culinary customs around it.

A grade isn’t given just based on how the dish tastes, but how well a student can explain the process and defend it according to the principles explained in the class proper. This readies them for a hands-on experience in actual professional kitchens through many hours of immersion and OJT, where they observe and participate in actual professional service.

By the end of the program, students take the lead in a week-long restaurant simulation where they make a concept and run it based on everything they have learned from the program. They are judged by AICA’s faculty as well as alumni and friends who have extensive and current experience in the restaurant and culinary industry. Once they graduate, they go out into the world ready to manage and lead a real working kitchen.